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      This time the trip was a long one, over Queensboro Bridge and on into Long Island City, but at last she reached her destination — the little grocery store over which Minnie Cassidy lived in two cheerless rooms. Ruth had made the trip once before — on Christmas Day — to visit the old scrubwoman, temporarily bedridden with rheumatism.
      Entrance was through the mean, dirty little store, inefficiently run by Minnie’s son-in-law, with the help of the girl, Rose.
      “Hello, Rose!” Ruth greeted the pretty, untidy girl behind the counter, “I want to see your mother.”
      “She’s upstairs, Miss Lester. Bud isn’t here, and I’m alone in the store. Would you mind going up alone?”
      Ruth found Minnie Cassidy puttering about a disordered kitchen. “Good land, child! What brings ye here?” Minnie greeted the girl. "Here take the weight off your pretty feet! Phut! Don’t bother! That’s only the cat’s saucer and it was cracked anyway... Now, what’s Tommy McMann been up to? Has he arrested your young man, and do ye think old Minnie can help ye out?”

ex Anne Austin. The Black Pigeon (1929) : 222 : link
 

more on this novel and its author Anne Austin (1895?-1975) at putterings 558a.
 

17 September 2025